David Baker Becomes 2-Time All-American
On Saturday, March 3, fifth-year David Baker repeated his All-American performance from last year in the one mile run at the NAIA Indoor National Track and Field Championships in Geneva, Ohio. His time of 4:08.30 was good enough for sixth-place.
Baker is celebrated as St. Louis College of Pharmacy's first-ever All-American in 2011 by finishing sixth at the 2011 indoor nationals, running 4:13.50. He began his journey to the 2012 national meet by qualifying at the very first indoor meet of the season in December with a time of 4:17.27. For the past three months, he has been training and competing in local meets to prepare him to run his best at nationals.
Once there, Baker had to finish in the top three (of 12) in his preliminary qualifying heat on Friday (or have one of the next four fastest times) to get into the finals on Saturday. Baker ran 4:14.68 in the prelims, the sixth-fastest time overall, to qualify for the finals. Then, on Saturday, with everything on the line, Baker broke his own STLCOP record (from last year's indoor nationals) of 4:13.50 by five seconds to earn his second All-American title.
The race was faster than Baker and STLCOP's head track coach David Baker (no relation) expected. All ten finalists recorded finishing times that were faster than last year's national champion. Because of this, Baker could not use his planned strategy of outkicking others at the final lap. He, along with the rest of the competition, had no extra gear left at the end of the race. "It was such a fast race from the start," said Coach Baker. "David had never been in a race where he was challenged that early. So it was less strategic and more about talent and guts." Setting a PR in the 1000m during the race, Baker set out running faster than he ever had.
"I somehow lucked out," Baker said. "I was in seventh or eighth place around the third lap and the guy on the outside of me didn't close the gap between us, so I was able to pass on the inside. I could definitely feel it in my legs at 1000, so then I just had to hang in there."
Baker's 4:08 mile time makes him the fast collegiate athlete in Missouri. The three points he scored at the national meet put STLCOP in 48th place in the NAIA.
When Coach Baker congratulated Baker, he told him "I think this one's going to take a couple days to sink in." But, Baker had no resting planned. Despite his sore legs, he went out for a long run on Sunday and will continue training for the outdoor season. STLCOP's first outdoor track and field competition will be March 30-31, at the Washington University Invitational.
-- article courtesy of St. Louis College of Pharmacy